


11:37 PM

by jozevf



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-12 20:35:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28766418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jozevf/pseuds/jozevf
Summary: A preface: This work directly preceded and mildly inspired my other work,Still there...?I noticed I focus a lot on dialogue and not enough on descriptions. This work was a test of my ability to work with less dialogue and more descriptions.
Kudos: 1





	11:37 PM

**Author's Note:**

> A preface: This work directly preceded and mildly inspired my other work, _Still there...?_  
>  I noticed I focus a lot on dialogue and not enough on descriptions. This work was a test of my ability to work with less dialogue and more descriptions.

Melanie sat in the chair in her bedroom, cell phone held against her ear. She’d spent the last couple hours chatting with her friend Finn about their plans for college when he’d sighed and gone silent. Her eyes drifted over to her nightstand, looking at the hands on her flowery clock. 11:37 PM. It was pretty late. _Did he fall asleep…?_

She stood up from her chair and walked over to her bed. Setting aside some stuffed animals -- a teddy bear in a pirate outfit, carrying a felt cutlass; a poodle, well worn by age and hugs; and a strange, round creature with bat wings, a bright red nose, and a bright red puff poking from its head -- she climbed into bed and pulled her blanket up to her waist.

Biting her lip, she broke the silence. “Still there…?” She looked at the lily on her windowsill, still a lovely shade of pink and in full bloom, even this late in the summer. She looked further up and saw that the sky was clear and the moon was bright.

Casting a glance around the rest of the room, she blushed at her choice of decorations. Flowers, stuffed animals, a motivational poster with a kitten clinging to a rope. Her big brother once teased her for having such a “girly” room, and she stubbornly decided to embrace it by adding even more cute things.

From her bed, Melanie could see her reflection in her makeup mirror. She realized she hadn’t undone her pigtails before lying down. She thought about getting up to do it now, but didn’t want to put down her phone. She held it tighter to her ear to listen.

***

  
Finn lay on the mattress in the center of his room, cell phone laying a few inches from his head. He’d been watching a spider cross his ceiling when the single bulb barely lighting the room went out. He glanced over to the cardboard box his digital clock sat on. 11:37 PM.

He pulled the thin sheet that was draped across his waist up to his chest. He looked over to the window, a large crack splintering its way across from one end of the pane to the other; the sky was overcast and moonlight occasionally peeked through. Melanie’s voice cracked over the speaker on his phone. “Still there…?”

He looked around the room, barely lit by fading moonlight and the LED display of his clock. His walls were bare, save for the chipped and yellowed paint. There wasn’t much space for furniture: a dresser, drawers half closed with clothing sticking out immodestly; a small closet with no door, empty except for a single box with a couple old paperbacks in it; and a mirror, jagged around the edges and painted black on the top fourth with a sticky note over it that said _SMILE! :)_ in Melanie’s handwriting.

Finn closed his eyes and spoke finally. “...Still here.”


End file.
